The present invention relates to a crossfire tube assembly for gas turbines and particularly relates to a crossfire tube assembly having a gasket/bellows combination for air tight sealing of the crossfire tube assembly.
As well known, combustors in stationary land based gas turbines are interconnected by crossfire tubes. These crossfire tubes enable initial ignition of a combustor adjacent to an ignited combustor thereby eliminating the need for separate ignition, and corresponding elements for enabling separate ignition, from each combustor. Crossfire tubes are well known in the gas turbine environment. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,249,372 and 6,606,865. In the system disclosed in the latter patent, a bellows with annular rings at opposite ends is arranged between combustor flanges. While those bellows assemblies have performed and have demonstrated significant improvement over prior crossfire tube assemblies, the sealing capability of prior crossfire tube assemblies of this type has been brought into question. Absent an air tight seal, hot gases escaping from the crossfire tubes may damage adjacent parts of the turbine. Accordingly there has been demonstrated a need for an improved sealing system for a crossfire tube assembly whereby the crossfire tube assembly is completely airtight with effective thermal disassociation between the hot gases flowing through the crossfire tube assembly and adjacent components of the turbine.